TMNT and everyone in the story I'm about to attempt are owned by Mirage-- I'm guessing that includes Bishop, that slimy bas--agent... heh heh heh... The plot is basically mine, with the occasional allusion to the current series. (bows and leaves)

Things were pretty much back to normal-- i.e. they were dealing with Shredder.

At first things threatened to be rather calm after the invasion, barring a few run-ins with angry citizens newly armed with alien weapons and itching for payback-- "Hey, it's not my fault they can't tell a Turtle from a dinosaur," Raph had shrugged, after explaining how he'd met the blind lady.

The run-in with Mr. Touch and Mr. Go had certainly helped Mikey regain some sort of hold over his emotions-- though he was still having the nightmares.

The dreams were usually the same. He would be strapped to that table, and no one else was in the room except Bishop-- and no one could save him as the cutting began.

Once, after a particularly angry argument with Raph (hey, he hadn't meant to drop that dumbbell on Raph's foot!) during which Raph had made a statement to the effect that he'd be better off without Mike, the nightmare had begun as usual, except Raph was there-- and without a word had left him to Bishop. That was the hardest one, and it had drawn the attention of his brothers and Splinter because he'd apparently been shouting out to Raph, begging him to "Don't leave me!" as the cutting was going on.

Raph ended up sleeping in Mikey's room that night and for the next few nights as well, until this particular version of the nightmare stopped and he seemed to be more his normal annoying self.

But usually he'd wake up shaking or (worse to him) crying like a baby. The nightmares were fewer since the run-in with the Wonder Twins, as Mike liked to call them, but they were still there. And the only one he told was Splinter.

He had quit sleeping with Splinter after the first few nights back-- but only because he had forced himself to. But he did confide in his sensei after each of these incidents. Splinter had made him promise early on to always come to him about them, and Mike, even if he didn't tell the others, always told Splinter. As they talked them through, Mike began to heal.

Every time they were out, he felt as if Bishop were watching him, waiting for his chance to finish the job. But even this began to fade as they became more and more involved in other important business.

But he still had the nightmares once in a while. And he still looked over his shoulder.

Don acted as he usually did, but everyone made sure to keep an eye on him for his usual tactic when upset, i.e. overworking on projects and such. His work with Leatherhead on various projects, as well as helping their friend set up his new living quarters, had been very helpful to his peace of mind, it seemed.

His nightmares were fewer than Mike's it seemed-- Oh, he was honest with Splinter, he always told him if he'd had any-- Splinter had made him promise, as well. But the ones he did have were doozys-- the usual one about the mind probe tearing his memories apart, and Splinter not hearing his son's mental plea for help-- but once in a while, it was him on the table instead of Professor Honeycutt, and it was his brain that fried out due to the efforts to upload the virus. All of these nightmares, though few, resulted in his working into the early hours after having one-- he simply could not go back to sleep-- researching stuff like memory loss, brain damage, prevention against dementia. That mind-probe had worried him that perhaps he'd suffered some sort of damage.

He became obsessed with the thought that he'd forgotten something due to that torture-- so obsessed that one night, when they'd had to have cold leftovers for dinner because he'd forgotten that it was his turn to cook, he had a panic attack and went on a crying jag. It took Splinter several hours to calm his son and convince him that it was just an honest mistake, not the beginning of the end of his mind.

They had all hoped, even Splinter, that with the recent discovery that Honeycutt had backed up his memory, and managed to somehow store it until it could automatically download into Don's palm top, would stop Don's nightmares-- but for some reason, they increased for a short time.

Still, as the time went by, and they became more and more involved with the Shredder's new plans, both Don and Mike were getting better. But they both still seemed scarred. And scared.

Leo and Raph were more and more determined to find Bishop and take care of him themselves. Don and Mike would be useful, but neither one was ready-- at least, that was the opinion of the "older" brothers.

"Mikey would freak," Raph justified to Leo and himself one night, shortly after the episode when Raph had ended up sleeping in his room with him. "That bastard may not have physically cut him up, but it's like he took somethin' away from Mikey! Somethin's missin', ya know?"

Leo nodded grimly.

"He's not the only one. Don's not been the same, and I blame Bishop as well. He's the one who turned the fugitoid over to Blanque. Watching the Professor burn his robot brain out on top of what the Triceratons did to him-- I can't stand to see him so concerned about his mental abilities-- he's started second-guessing himself. That's not good."

"We gotta find Bishop! Maybe if we put an end to him, we can put an end to these problems!"

"Agreed. But how? Don would be the most helpful in this search."

Both brothers thought hard.

"Suppose we just use him to help us find stuff out," Raph suggested. "Suppose we just, you know, talk to him about ways to protect ourselves and stuff, and wanting to know if there's a way to do it..."

Leo thought this over.

"I don't know... it's tempting, but Don is so smart, I'm sure he'd see through us in a minute," Leo sighed.

"Well, let's consider it, huh? 'Cause my Googlin' skills aren't exactly workin'."

"I'm sure we aren't going to find him by simply using search engines," Leo laughed, then grew serious as he thought the problem through. "Okay, if we can't think of a better plan, we will go to Don. But we will need a convincing yet simple story. I don't want him to know that we plan on putting an end to that bastard."

"Agreed. And we definitely don't tell Mikey," Raph nodded. "I don't think I can take too much more of sleepin' with him just to keep him sane-- it'll drive me to have nightmares."

They shared a laugh and then went to bed.

Meanwhile, they became more and more drawn into Shredder's latest plans.

Oroku Saki was saving New York. And Shredder was collecting weapons and alien tech all over the place.

The Turtles became increasingly busy it seemed dealing with this stuff, with an occasional break to rest up at the Farm with Casey and April. And even there they couldn't stay out of trouble.

But more and more their time seemed spent in thwarting whatever plans Shredder was hatching.

More and more they were drawn into situations where they were dealing with Karai.

And this led to their first missed opportunity.